AllAdvantage was the first and for a while at least the BEST of the Viewbar programs. It was launched in March 1999, with predictions that membership would rise to around 30,000 by June. The interest was truly unprecedented and 10 days after launch, membership had exploded to a quarter of a million, moving up to 650,000 by the end of April, even though the viewbar program itself had yet to be released.

The viewbar itself was released on a first come, first served basis in May, but initially there were some teething difficulties, including spam and lost referrals. The program was already a runaway success, but clearly a money hungry Internet community was ready to abuse it.

GoToWorld and Utopiad, AA's first competitors, appeared with their programs in June 1999, and ePIPO soon followed.

AA continued to have difficulties and announced that the maximum number of hours which would be paid for during July was 10. A shocked membership complained that all the hype had suggested that they would be paid for 40 hours. Obviously, even at this early stage, there was some doubt about the sustainability of the model. August saw a welcome increase in maximum hours to 15, and membershiip continued to race away to 2 million, seduced by the promise of free money. The viewbar was by now widely available, but early users started complaining about it causing problems with their PC's. The AA website was ranked 48th most visited in PCData rankings, rising to 23 in August.

Throughout the rest of 1999 and the first part of 2000, things continued in much the same way - memership knew no bounds, AA started paying out earnings as promised, but there was continued pressure on maximum hours coverage and payment rates as the financial model was proven to be seriously over optimistic. The advertising revenues were never enough to generate sufficient profits and the only way to cope was to cut back on payments to members.

They also tried to persuade members (even conning them) to switch from the Viewbar scheme to instead participating in Sweepstakes, but they weren't conning anyone ad whatever they tried just didn't me any difference at all. Their fortunes dipped lower and lower, until at last the news came, with the following article in InternetNews on February 1 2001:

Ad-sponsored surfing program AllAdvantage has given up on trying to make money by paying people to look at banner ads as they browse the Web.

"We are sad to report that the major changes in the marketplace that occurred during the last year now require that we close the AllAdvantage Viewbar [a window that displayed banner ads while users surfed] and our pay-to-surf, sweepstakes and other incentive programs," states a message on the AllAdvantage Web site.

"The advertising and capital markets have changed so fundamentally that it is now impossible to continue our infomediary incentive programs and benefits, including the Viewbar software."

Spokespeople from liquidation firm DoveBid confirmed that it plans to auction off at least some of AllAdvantage's assets -- including servers and office furniture -- later this month.

It isn't known whether the Hayward, Calif.-based firm is fully out of business, although the voicemail of chief executive officer Jim Jorgensen was disabled, as was that of AllAdvantage's public relations staff. Calls left in a general mailbox were not returned by press time, and a previously posted number for technical questions was out of service.

The company's corporate information was also disabled on the site, although it did provide instructions for uninstalling its "Viewbar," and said in the front-page message that it would not sell, lease, or distribute user information to third parties.

The company, which launched in 1999, went through a number of changes in its business model, each time prompting speculations about its viability. A tendency toward secrecy and reluctance to answer press inquires didn't help stem rumors that AllAdvantage was in trouble.

After all, AllAdvantage.com earned most of its revenues from banner ads on its Viewbar, and the problems facing online advertising especially impacted the pay-to-surf players, for which member payments were often their single greatest expense.

Following a pulled IPO in June, AllAdvantage was forced to retool its payment model several times, first reducing the maximum cash it paid users, and then offering sweepstakes entries as an alternative to cash -- each time raising member ire.

Rumors only increased when a similarly positioned firm, Los Angeles-based mValue, shuttered its doors permanently in October, after having tweaked its own payment system several times.

The company also came under heat from members who alleged that it was often late in paying, although it publicly denied any culpability. Many members also claimed that the firm routinely invalidated certain legitimate users' accounts on the pretense of fraud, to avoid payout. This too, the company denied.

In September, AllAdvantage began to give signs that it was moving into what would become one of its new business areas, striking a technology licensing deal in Japan. But technology apparently didn't pan out as a viable business for the firm -- it never confirmed whether it had landed any clients other than the one it has in Japan, which is actually a joint venture between itself and a major investor, Softbank.

It is not known whether the joint venture, AllAdvantage Japan, will continue; calls to Softbank were not returned by press time.

In November, AllAdvantage quietly cut 35 percent of its staff -- about 150 staffers -- and said it would begin revamping itself into a B2B play. According to that new plan, AllAdvantage would focus most of its energies on becoming a database management application service provider and a specialty ad rep firm to sell banner space in applications. A spokesman envisioned it working for marketing technology companies in the area -- like Radiate, EverAd, and Conducent --- but did not comment on whether it was in talks with any players.

AllAdvantage also flirted with charging for software distribution -- a deal with outsourced technology vendor MyCIO.com began the firm distributing antivirus software to users, in return for a slight fee.

And so, finally, one of the most interesting money making programs disappeared with not a bang, but a sleazy whimper.